In a recent interview with MCV, SteamWorld Dig 2 developer Image & Form expressed its approval at how much easier digital publishing has been for Switch compared to previous Nintendo Consoles. Julius Guldbog, Image & Form’s community manager, touched on the difficulties involved with past publishing experiences for Nintendo and how things have improved with this new console generation:

“Publishing for Nintendo consoles has been, in the past, not a nightmare, but pretty close. They make sure every QA gate is good enough. It takes months, and you have to do that for every region, and if you fail, it takes even longer. You have to get a new slot, and release dates are pushed back.

“But with the Switch, we only have to make one version and only have one launch – and that’s one version for the entire world, so we’ll have the same version in the US, Europe and a little bit later, Japan and China as well. That saves so much work. It means we can do the translations ourselves, we don’t have to have a new publisher for one specific region – it’s going to be so much easier. They’re basically taking the Steam or App Store approach: one version of the game for the entire world.”

Guldbog also discussed how Nintendo is being more proactive about seeking third-party support, which is notable given that Nintendo consoles have been heavily criticized over the years for lacking in this department:

“From what I’ve seen, just using Nintendo’s publishing tools to set up everything from sales to getting the name right on the eShop, everything like that, it’s much more streamlined and more modern. Even Nintendo’s approach to how they get new indies to join the Switch family – nowadays, they see a good game at a convention and they just walk straight up to them and ask them to develop for Switch. From what I know, they’ve never done that before, so I think they are getting with the times. They know more than anyone what they did wrong with the Wii U, and 3DS in some cases as well, and they really want to fix that.”

His confidence in Switch was also expressed in his belief that it can compete with PS4 and Xbox One in both its development process and the quality of its titles, stating that Switch is “up there with the big leagues” and that Image & Form has had “no [development] problems at all” so far with the console. Guldbog concluded by saying, “Switch isn’t as powerful as the PS4 or Xbox One, but it’s pretty darn close. Just look at Snake Pass or Fast RMX. Snake Pass is extra interesting, because look at how good the graphics are compared to the PS4 version. I think if developers put their mind to it and optimise the game for the Switch, it can run anything.”